Figure 1

Intracerebral IL-18 concentrations in mice, as determined by ELISA in murine brain homogenates (n = 10 animals per group). Untreated normal mice were used for determination of baseline IL-18 levels in this study. The four treatment groups were sacrificed after 24 hours for assessment of intracerebral IL-18 levels, as described in the text. Mice deficient in genes for TNF and lymphotoxin-α (TNF/LT-α-/-) and wild-type (WT) littermates were subjected to focal closed head injury (CHI) and sacrificed after 24 hours. Two additional groups of WT mice were given an intracerebro-ventricular (i.c.v.) injection of 200 ng mouse-recombinant TNF in 10 μl PBS or by vehicle alone (10 μl PBS i.c.v.). The data are presented as means ± SEM. *P < 0.01 vs. baseline / TNF-injection (unpaired Student's t-test).